The difficulty with Barry's work for Cry, The Beloved Country is that he approached the project with the same kind of romantic feel of 1985's Out of Africa rather than the more appropriate ethnic tension and spirit of 1964's Zulu. Granted, the films are obviously different in most ways, but Cry, The Beloved Country is a relaxing, delicate score for a troubled, disjointed film, raising immediate questions about the composer's stylistic choices for the score (if any, if you want to be a cynic about Barry's late career). The great irony of this entire situation, and bless Barry for doing this, is the noted transfiguration of the original Zulu theme into Cry, The Beloved Country. Whereas the theme was brutal (and meant for war) in Zulu, it is translated into a beautiful, somber piano piece for travel scenes in this score. The theme has the haunting feel of remembrance for Barry personally as well, drawing from his own glory days and performing the theme as almost a eulogy for his own declining career. Of great importance to the score, however, are two additional themes for Cry, The Beloved Country, both of which maintaining the high standards of string-performing excellence in harmony and beauty that Barry fans expect to hear. His romantic and lush styles here are slightly subdued, but always gracious in their presentation. Not much differs from the height of passion to the horrors of death in his music, with the latter receiving only a slight rhythm of rumbling timpani and single piano chords. The themes are all extremely repetitive, almost to fault (once again the norm for 80's/90's Barry), but on album, the score is as delightful as it is sleep-inducing. One of the consistencies between Cry, The Beloved Country and The Scarlet Letter is the recording quality. Instead of compensating for Barry's very soft, harmonious touch by emphasizing a crisp recording, the final mix is extremely wet and reverberating. Thus, a wishy-washy score becomes even more abstract, which is very effective if you want to relax to his music while seemingly sitting in the back row of a concert hall. But Barry critics will have plenty to find displeasing with Cry, The Beloved Country, from the echoing recording quality to the repetitive nature of the writing, and not even the source songs on the album can probably save the music for such listeners. Still, the score remains one of Barry's last truly enjoyable efforts.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download